Money and Power

Money is power, the power to control the work of others. But behind that power – recognized in every bank note, every coin and every entry in a bank account – stands yet another power: states with their monopoly on force guaranteeing the money.

Property doesn’t fundamentally mean the exclusion of others. There are inclusive and exclusive forms of ownership, with very different consequences for people’s interactions with each other and with nature. Our money imposes a private ownership that rigorously excludes everyone from everything they haven’t paid money for.

All over the world people are compelled to sell something in order to get money that they need for living. Basically what most people have to sell is their labour and this is put to use to produce merchandise. Where things are produced in this way, those who buy with money appropriate control over the work of the others.

No coin, no bill, no number on an account can force anyone to use them as money. It is governments that impose and maintain this compulsion. The states themselves depend on money, and want as much of it as possible to be generated in their own currency.